I wonder if I am doing something wrong.. I played Orcs vs Elves five times now, and every battle lasted at most 2 rounds. Some I won, some I lost. Player A seems to have a really strong advantage, and sometimes only bad luck with dice might means player B stands a real chance.

Thought at first it was due to the 50 points setup (3 games) but then even with 70 (1 game) and 100 (1 game) we never got to play a third round.

Sure, we might have done something strategically/tactically wrong (like I put an hero archer in front, when I was player B, and obviously he got killed by players A's catapult right away etc) but these battles sure went fast, possibly too fast..

Still a blast, sure, but I wonder if I should try trimming down CP to, say, 1 every 15 setup points next time, to have a little bit more of a real back and forth battle.

Anyone else try doubling-up and using two sets for a slightly longer battle?

Yes. I first bought 2 sets of Elves vs. Orcs and then Celts vs. Romans x2 and my friend has doubles of Macedonians vs. Persians (of each, both sets fit rather nicely inside a single box as well).

In my opinion, this game is a "must have 2 sets" now however it's not because it makes game play last longer, as we still don't take more than 100 points and on average still stay in the 70-80 point range.

Here's why I like 2 sets:

-One thing was, if you were building around an 80 point army with one set, you were basically using most of the units. The discussion was then more "which units don't I include."

-With 2 armies you have a choice of including 2 of the special units but obviously at a higher cost. Imagine the elves with 2 trees!

-However, mostly I do 2 armies for this reason: Before, a certain type of combatants had a finite amount of set ups. For example, maybe they had 1 of every number and that's it. Now, there are some interesting ways to set up troops from a probability standpoint. Do you try and cover as many numbers as possible, near-guaranteeing a hit or do you double up on half the numbers, lowering the likelihood of a hit but doubling the damage. It also makes the unit combinations easier, with many different possible combinations that are now repeatable.

As far as making the game last longer, it really is only going to be 2-3 rounds or so. To help, as mentioned above, you have to think of part of the game being the setup and deployment. Half the fun is building the army and outguessing your opponent. The other thing to keep in mind is that Pocket Battles favors aggression and offense, so units die very quickly. That being said, there are tricks you will learn to give your side advantages and keep your units alive longer. Such tips include:

-Make sure you have units that have only 1 single tile of low points. This is your intercept unit to cushion against attacks and you should have a couple of these in each sector.

-Redeploy, redeploy, redeploy. This is as useful to get attacking units into position (remember, they can't attack the same turn) as it is to get units out of harms way.

-Build armies with a plan. I know this sounds simple, but you need to identify the strengths and weakness of an opponent's army so it stands to reason you should be able to recognize your own. You need a few groups that do damage, a few ranged groups for picking off high value targets, you need some cheap fodder and you need some units that can take a punch or two.

-Think outside the box and try it out. Try an army that only has single units. Try all range or all melee. What worked well and what didn't? Eventually play style will actually lengthen the game a bit just from a tactics point of view.